It all started on Oct. 13, 2010. I went in at 5am to start my induction. It got started around 9am and I had such an easy labor and delivery. At 3:22pm I had a 8lb 2oz beautiful baby girl, Nevaeh. She seemed to be healthy and latched right on to breastfeed. They came in an hour later to take her for her shots and bath. I got her back around 7pm. I tried to feed her and she wouldn't latch on. So I let her sleep some, then my husband I noticed she was grunting and just seemed very uncomfortable. I just thought she was sleepy from birth. This went on for an hour and I finally called the nursery and told them to come check on her. The nurse came and got her and took her back to the nursery and said that it was probably nothing but they would check her out anyway. I went to bed around midnight and woke up at 6am and started to wonder why they hadn't brought my daughter back to me so I sent my husband down to check on her.

After checking on her he came back into our room and had tears in his eyes. I asked what was wrong. He informed me that she was in the back of the nursery on oxygen and had 2 i.v's in her, one for fluids and one for antibiotics. I immediately put on my robe and went to see her and talk to the doctor. The doctor told me the antibiotics were just a precaution because she had been running a fever of 103f as well. He then had me sign a consent form for her spinal tap to check for growth of bacteria and to check her white blood cell count. I kissed my daughter before she went for the spinal tap and waited anxiously in my room for the doctor to come in afterwards. He said right off that the tap didn't look good. It was really cloudy and that wasn't a good sign. He said we would have to wait 48 hours for the bacteria growth results but if they could see bacteria within 24 hours that wasn't a good sign either. She then got moved upstairs to the NICU (this is 2 days after she was born) where they then put in a central line for her antibiotics. At this point she hadn't eaten since birth and now weighed 6lbs. They wanted me to keep offering her breast milk because that would be the best for her. I would pump and they would let me put on gloves, dip my finger into my colostrum and then rub it in her mouth. They wanted to put a feeding tube in her on day 1 but the lactation consultant said for them to wait a little while longer. I am glad she did because on day 3 she FINALLY started to latch on and eat again. She was back to her birth weight within 48 hours!

On day 4 which was when they got the results of her test back they came to me and told me it was the worst they have seen--her white blood cell count was extremely high and she now had bacterial meningitis and sepsis. They doctors were actually surprised at how well she was doing. Her fever had gone away and they were able to wean her off of the oxygen. She continued to thrive until day 7 when she got a fever of 104f. They thought she was starting to have seizures so they put her on a brainzees monitor overnight to check. The process included sticking tiny needles into her scalp. The same day she had another spinal tap. The results for seizures were negative but the spinal tap still showed way more white blood cells then there should've been since she had been on antibiotics. They called a specialist in Little Rock to discuss some stuff, but they never did tell me what he said. The next day, day 12, she didn't have a fever anymore and she was back to her fun loving self. The staff was amazed at what they were seeing--so sick one day and the next it was like nothing ever happened. On day 15 they did another spinal tap to see if the antibiotics she was on were working. She was on 3 different kinds at that point. Her white blood cell count was still triple its normal amount but they said since she was doing so well, they were going to let us go home in a few days. I was so nervous but so ready.

On day 17 we finally go to go home, but had to keep a close eye on her and watch for fever and monitor her development. The doctors told me that because hers was such a bad case that I should expect to see signs of blindness, deafness, or forms of mental retardation. I was just glad to have her home. She got to see her big brother! She will soon be two years old and she is thriving. She is so smart and has no signs of any defects!— Courtney Haddock, AR, USA

Courtney tells their story to everyone she knows hoping that it will help save a life. She posts on Facebook and asks people to share their story.